Just when the US is preparing to ban TikTok nationwide, the social media is caught in another intriguing revelation – that its efforts to protect US user data have major flaws.
A former member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety team has whistle-blew this claim, saying that the platform will be connected to Toutiao, a news app from ByteDance – the parent company of both TikTok and Toutiao. This link could let the Chinese access the US data for unknown consequences.
Project Texas is Severely Flawed
The popular short-video entertainment platform – TikTok is already facing a number of allegations around the world, with most doubting its platform security and user privacy. The US, in particular, has similar opinions with the house and senators suspecting it to be used as a spying tool by China due to its origins and links to the Chinese government.
Adding up to these allegations is a fresh complaint from a self-proclaimed whistleblower – who called that TikTok’s Project Texas is severely flawed. Project Texas is a $1.5 billion worth initiative from TikTok to safeguard the US user data – with necessary tools and restrictions to protect user privacy.
Talking to The Washington Post, the whistleblower said that Project Texas would connect TikTok to Toutiao, a news app from ByteDance – which is also the parent company of TikTok. This would eventually let the Chinese spy on Americans, claims the whistleblower.
And a truly secure approach for this is by completely re-engineering the service’s infrastructure, says the ex-employee. Unnamed people from TikTok tell The Post that the claims are “unfounded,” The Toutiao code only amounts to a “naming convention and technical relic” that doesn’t link the app to China.
They also state that TikTok relocating the US data to go through Oracle servers should undercut the privacy claims and know that the Toutiao link could not affect the platform’s US business. Also, the whistleblower was employed only for about six months, and he supposedly left months before Project Texas was finalized. Thus, he may not know the full picture of these operations.
